Portrait of a man taking the long way to work: Rush drummer/lyricist Neil Peart has an enviable commute, here visiting Mount Rainier between show dates.
in Colorado, we got caught in a blizzard on a summer's day. Must be a Canadian thing .. . Following Neil down the twisty road leaving Mount Rainier, I noticed that he was using less ay back in 1997, my sister Laurie e-mailed me one ofthose questionnaires that later of the road than he had in years past. Initially, I became popular on Myspace. I dutifully filled it out, sent it back to her and apparently attributed this to the fact that he had become IE saved it, because I found it recently while purging files on my laptop. One of the lines a father again (daughter Olivia is now 2), but I read: "Name a person you would like to meet." My reply: Neil Peart. later learned that he had low-sided in gravel on the previous tour. Not this time! Reading that shocked me for two reasons. Celebrity company aside, that adventure The song "Workin ' Them Angels" is about First, while I've been a lifelong Rush fan, I proved memorable as we were the last vehi risk·taking. Based on an exchange Neil over played bass and sang back in the day, so cles to head up a dirt mountain road in front heard at the side of the road-"You were spent a lot of time channeling Geddy Lee. And of the paving trucks, got lost in the desert and workin' them angels," the wife told her hard while I've always admired Neil 's drumming, followed a school bus (!) back to civilization. driving husband-the lyrics go: All my life, I've I've honestly been more impressed with his And that was just the first of many: Whenever been workin' them angels overtime, Riding and lyrics. So it must have been something that he Rush is on tour, I get a call from Michael driving and living, So close to the edge. Now, wrote that made me want to meet him. asking, "When are you coming riding with us?" Neil was literally riding farther from the edge. Second was the fact that not only did I Last summer I got the call again, and found Can't blame him for that! eventually meet Neil , we became fast friends. myself jetting to Vancouver, British Columbia, After two days on the road we arrived at What I didn't know at the time was that Neil to ride with "the girls" down to the Gorge the Gorge for the final concert of Rush's Time had just begun riding motorcycles. And then Washington State's answer to Colorado's Red Machine tour, where the band performed what tragically lost his daughter in a car crash and Rocks. Neil collects stamps from National must rank as one oftheir best shows ever. his wife to cancer, both in the span of one year. Parks, so I wasn't the least bit surprised when When I told Neil that afterwards, he invoked a Reeling from depression, he went for a ride he led us way out of the way to Mount Rainier. hockey reference: "You 've gotta leave it all (see The Bike That Changed My Ufe, page 19). What did surprise me was that, after spying on the ice." When he returned 18 months later, he wrote a the 14,41Hoot peak looming on the horizon Neil has often written that he likes to see book called Ghost Rider. I asked the publisher most of the day, we arrived at the mountaintop his fans "delighted." They certainly were that for a review copy, and a few weeks later found lodge to discover the peak still rose another night-and none more so than me. myself riding with Neil and the band's security 5000 feet! But I've still got to admit: If I had known manager Michael Mosbach (now another Of course we took some dirt roads on our that I would one day meet the person I named good friend) for a story that appeared in that BMW GSs, turning around on one because in that questionnaire my sister sent me, "other" major U.S. motorcycle magazine. it was snowed under-in July! Last time out, I would have written Pamela Anderson! Me
YNM'.motorcyclistonline.com 11. PHOTO: Michael Mosbach
RIDER: Neil Peart THEN: Grieving widower contemplating life without music NOW: Remarried husband and new father, still rocking with Rush
he first motorcycle I bought for myself carried me into the Iiwonderful world of adventure touring. (Though my first bike, a 2004 Rll00RS sport-tourer, had suffered manfully-if unsuitably-through trips above the Arctic Circle and around Mexico.) Those two bikes came out on the first concert tour on which I traveled by motorcycle, Test for Echo , in 1996-'97. " In '98, this bike also carried me out of the utter darkness left by double family losses, on a 55,OOO-mile ride to the farthest points of North America, from Alaska to Belize. Thus it was the 'star' ofthe book Ghost Rider, about my journey through grief and sorrow to gradual healing. "Retired after 100,000 miles, it was displayed for a time at the AMA Museum in Ohio, and now stands on display in the hallway of my home in Quebec . It was also the first of seven GSs (I call them "Geezers," and number them to keep them apart), most of which have been sold to friends. My present ride is a 2010 R1200GS: 'Geezer 7. '" How We Roll When Rush drummerllyricist Neil Peart invited Editor Catterson to ride with him from Vancouver, Canada, to Seattle, Washington, on last summer's Time Machine tour, Cat went ahead and booked round-trip airline tickets. But surprise, surprise: Seeing as how the latter show was the last of the tour, Neil invited Cat to fly home with him and the band's security manager Michael Mosbach (seen here doing "Blue Steel") on a private jet! That was pretty special even for Neil, since he usually rides his BMW R1200GS from show to show while his bandmates fly.